The netbook designation was always a bit tricky and Dell’s just officially announced the Inspiron Mini 12. It weighs around 1.2Kg, is under 1in thick and comes with Windows Vista Home Basic, built-in webcam, 1GB of Ram and a choice of 60GB or 80GB hard disk drives. APC magazine in Australia got a machine from Michael Dell and has a world first comprehensive review. APC points out that that the Mini 12 uses a Z-series Atom processor (either the Z520 or Z530) and Intel’s low-power Poulsbo chipset. Which is clever, but has the major drawback that it limits you to 1GB of memory.
Dell is targeting this netbook at “teens, tweens, travellers and “Tweeters” to surf the Web, chat with friends, blog, stream content, upload photos or enjoy online videos, music and games.” It is available in Japan only at this point in time, although a global launch is set to follow later this November with prices starting from a shade under $600 upwards, depending on the configuration you choose. You can opt for Ubuntu or Windows XP as the operating system of choice.
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